‘Reports’ Category

Spain became the first team in the history of football to win three consecutive international tournaments after an inexplicable display of footballing genius in the finals of the Euro 2012 on Sunday. La Roja created history on a night when records tumbled one after another, as the defending champions thumped a wayward Italian side 4-0 to retain their crown as the Euro 2012 champions in the final at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.

Italy pulled off an upset last night by beating what looked to be, on paper at least, a far superior Germany side 2-1 to claim a place in Sunday night’s EURO 2012 final against Spain.

What was even more surprising about Italy’s win was just how easy it was. Germany, who had looked an extremely strong side up to that point, all of a sudden looked uncertain and full of weaknesses, and once they had fallen behind, never looked like coming back into the game. Italy were simply far too good for the Germans.

England’s quarter-final jinx continued as the three lions crashed out of this year’s European championships on penalties. Italy progressed into the semi-finals of the competition on the back of an inspiring display by their senior most players, Pirlo and Buffon.

Blanc surprised us by starting Anthony Reveilliere at right-back and playing Debuchy in front of him at the right-hand side of midfield. Malouda was also preferred to Samir Nasri and as expected, Laurent Koscielny replaced the suspended Mexes.

Del Bosque also had a slight surprise of his own in starting Cesc Fabregas as the false nine in place of Fernando Torres. All else remained as it were with the Spanish starting line-up.

“You should reach the limits of virtue, before you cross the border of death!”

With the backdrop of titter-tatter revolving around politics, the so called ‘Debt Derby’ was finally set to be played out on the pitch. With Angela Merkel in attendance, Joachim Low threw a few surprises into the mix. In place of Thomas Muller and Lukas Podolski came Marco Reus and Andre Schurrle, while Miroslav Klose came in for Gomez up top. The only surprise for Greece was that Gekas was left on the bench, with Ninis making a start on the right-hand side, with Salpingidis moved up top. The game itself provided no surprises.